Drive for press rolls or the like



Dec. 27, 1932. HARVEY DRIVE FOR PRESS ROLLS OR THE LIKE Filed April 17, 1931 I5 Sheets-Sheet m 0 0 o a 0 m W g 3 S heets-Sheet 2 m I. I I R. f p m x I. IIVI [M N 1 0 T a n y w v 5 lam R .1 .Q M E t C 4% j w w? 1 a T- HARVEY Filed April 17. 1931 Dec. 27, 1932.

DRIVE FOR PRESS ROLLS on THE LIKE Dec. 27, 1932. HARVEY 1,892,573

DRIVE FOR PRESS ROLLS OR THE LIKE Filed April 17, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Dec. 27, 1 2 7 IPATENTIOFFITCE tron HARVEY, or MIDDLETOWN, 031

DRIVE FOB PEESSBOLLS OR THE LIKE Application filed April 17,

This invention relates to paper making machinery and the like, employing a pair of cooperating rolls which feed a web of ma-.

\ terial between them.

One object of the invention is the provision, in a paper making machine or the like, of a pair of cooperating rollsiwhich feed a web of material between them, having differential driving means for supplying power equally to both rolls and driving them at the same peripheral speed, provision being made for supporting one of the rolls for bodily movement without affecting the drive for the rolls.

Another object of the invention is the provision of cooperating rolls of the character mentioned having a flexibly jointed connection between one of the rolls and differential driving gearing, the parts of the differential driving gearing being supported in a novel manner to provide constant mesh of the gears.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a paper making machine having a number of pairs of cooperating rolls which feed and squeeze ,a web of material between them, differential means being provided for driving the rolls of a pair at the same peripheral speed, the system incorporating means for varying the speed of one pair of rolls with respect to another pair for the proper coordination of the speed of the various pairs of rolls.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description. the appended claims and the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a roll drive embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a paper making machine having differential driving means for a number of pairs of cooperating rolls all feeding a common paper web;

Fig. 3 is a plan view corresponding to Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1: and

' Fig. 5 is a detail view of one form of roll mounting. Y

Referring more particularly to the drawings, like numerals designating similar parts 1931." Serial no. 530.793.

in the various views, 10 and 11 designate a pair of rolls adapted to squeeze and feeds web of material between them.. The invention as herein described is applied to a paper making machine although 1t is ada ted to other uses. The roll 10 as shown in Fig. Iis the upperroll and 11 is the lower rollof a. baby press or main press. The rolls may also be smoothing rolls or the couch roll and cylinder mold, or other similar rolls of a paper making machine. Such rolls are adapted to feed and squeeze a web of material, such as a paper web guided between upper and 10W. 7 er felts, or carried on one side of a single felt.

:The material fed between the rolls might be merely a single layer of paper such as, passes through the nip of the smoothing rolls.

In accordance with' the present invention upper and lower rolls of the character referred to are driven through a differential device which supplies power equally to the two rolls and rotates them at the same peripheral speed. Heretofore, it has been ,the custom to drivethe lower roll of a press while the upper roll acts as an idler, or the upper and lower rolls have been geared together so as to drive ,them both positively but at a speed which is dependent upon the pitch diameters of the gears. While the pitch diameters of the gears might agree approximately with the roll diameters, in practice exact correspondence of the roll diameters with the pitch diameters of the gears is almost unobtainable as the rolls weardown constantly and need to be resurfaced. Even when new, the deflection of a roll during operation renders the exact computation of the pitch diameters necessary to obtain equal peripheral speeds practically impossible. Two cooperating rolls operating at different peripheral 99 speeds produces wearand pulling on the felts and produce a rubbing-action between the felts and the paper, which is in a moist or partly formed conditionand therefore more easily affected by any movement of it on the felt or by any rubbing movement or friction that obtains between the paper and the surface of a roll that it might be in direct contact with. 'An attempt has also been made to drive the two rolls of a paper making ma- 100 chine through a difierential drive but this attempt. has not proved practical as no provision was made for relative movements of vthe two rolls.

In accordance with the present invention the two rolls are relatively movable, the upper roll being preferably the one that is capable of movement so that it can move bodil K usually large mass of material must be'passed between the rolls or when different thicknesses of paper-web must be provided for. A differential driving means supplies power' equally to the two rolls, the parts of the d'fferential drive bein held so as to provide or constant mesh of t e gears, while a flexible jointed connection is provided for driving the upper or movable roll.

The provision of means for driving the two rolls at the same peripheral speed makes it possible to resurface the rolls if they should become worn without requiring any change at all in the drive means. Deflection or bending of the rolls during operation need notbe carefully calculated, and the differential drive is adapted for operating pairs of rolls of various sizes at exactly the same peripheral speed. The rotation of the cooperating rolls at the same peripheral speed due to the suply ofpower equally to them provides for long life of the felts as there is practically no friction or rubbing action between the surfaces of the felts and rolls. Neither roll furnishes all of the driving power which is supplied equally to two rolls, so whatever small slip might be present between the felts and the rolls would be exactly equalized. Thus no rubbing action or slippage whatever obtains between the felts and the paper web carried between them. The quality of the paper is thereforeimproved. When used on smoothing rol s, where the paper comes in direct contact with the rolls between, which it passes, the exact equalization of the driving power on both surfaces of the paper insures a mini mum of rubb'ng action or friction between the paper and the ,rolls and greatly improves the quality of the finished product. Heretofore the smoothing rolls would riot operate always at the same peripheral speed and thereforethe upper or the lower surface of the paper was rubbed by the roll rendering the paper of unequal thickness and marring its finish. The moist paper fibres instead of being, pressed down firmly without rubbng action, as they shouldbe, were roughened and up-ended by he rubbing action.

A very important and quickly apparent advantage of the invention is the increase of life given to the felts. as the invent'on has proved away from the'lower roll when an unported irra suitable bearing 13, a similar bearh mg being provided at the opposite endof the ro so as to mount the roll axis in definite position. The upper roll 10 is supported at each end in a bearing 14 which is capable of movement to permit increase or decrease of distance betweenthe roll axis and thus provide for the passage of an unusually largequantity of material that often obtains at intervals in the operation of paper machines.

each end of the upper roll is mounted in an arm 16 pivotally supported at 17 in the frame, an adjusting screw 18 or similar device being provided for raising the roll for felt replacement, repair, etc. 1

The roll shaft 20 which supports the lower roll 11 and the shaft 21 of the upper roll 10 are both driven from a suitable driving shaft such as shaft 22 through the differential'gearin'g referred to, Shaft 22 carries a bevel gear 23 meshing with bevel gear 24 fixed on a shaft 25. Keyed to shaft25 is an arbor 26 in which are a plurality of studs 27 each rotatably supporting a bevel pinion 28. The bevel pinions mesh with two oppositely facing bevel gears 29 and 30, gear 29 being fixed on a sleeve 31, rotatably mounted in a bearing in housing 41 and serving as a support for the bearing in which the lefthand end of shaft 25 is mounted. Bevel gear 30 is fixed to a spur gear 42 rigid with sleeve 43 that turns in a bearing,44 in the housing 41 and that rotatably supports the righthand' end of shaft 25. 1

The supply of power from shaft 22 to thetwo bevel gears 29 and 30 is divided by the bevel pinions 28 which may drive the bevel gears at equal speeds or which may rotate on their studs 27 and drive the bevel gears at different speeds. Gear 29 is connected positively through sleeve 31 and jaw clutch A 45 to the roll shaft 20, while gear 30 is connected positively through gear 42, gear 46 meshing therewith and shaft 47 to the upper roll shaft 21.

When the pitch diameters ofgears 42 and 46 correspond to the roll diameters of rolls 11 and 10 respectively, the pinions 28 do not rot-ate on the pinion studs, but if the diameters of the rolls 10 and 11 are not in accordance with the pitch d ameters of the gears the bevel pinions rotate on their axes as they move bodily about the axis of the shaft 25, the result being that the power is supplied equally to the two rolls. Equal supply of power, of course. causes the two rolls to be driven at the same peripheral i 5 paper or the felts and paper so that whatever frictlon or relativeslipping action between the rolls and the web of material is present is equalized on the upper and lower surfaces of the material passing between the 10 rolls. ,A web of paper carried between two felts is therefore not affected at all as there. would be no rubbing or slipping between the paper web and the inner felt surfaces. The wear on the outer surfaces of the felt is 1mmmized because whatever slippage is present is exactly divided between the upper surface of theupper felt and the lowersurface of the lower felt and neither felt is required to assume all of the wear. j 1

The upper roll shaft 21 is connected to the shaft 47 of gear 46 in a flexibly jointed. manner, being connected by universal joint 48 to a short shaft 49 which in turn is connected by universal joint 50 to the end of shaft 47. Thispermits vertical movement of the roll 10' while the axis of the shaft 47 remains fixed during operation so that meshing engagement of the gearing is not affected when the upper roll moves.

39 t The enclosing housing 41 for the differential driving means preferably encloses the gears v46, 42, 29, 30 and .28 which may therefore operate in oil. The upper part of this housing is preferably a support 51 mounted adjustably on the lower housing portion 52, the upper surface of housing portion 52 being cylindrically curved and the lower side of support 51 being curved correspondingly. The center of curvature coincides with the axis of shaft 25 so that the support 51 may be swung to the right or left as viewed in Fig. 4 while maintaining constant mesh between the gears 42 and 46. The bearings for shaft 47 and bearings 40 and 44 for the lower shafts are therefore always fixed a definite distance apart so that the gears mesh constantly, although the upper gear 46 may be moved to the right or left to accommodate a pair of rolls that may not be arranged exactly vertically one over the other. The couch roll and cylinder mold for example are ordinarily arranged so that their centers do not lie vertically one over the other, and the adjustment provided in the support 51 permits the axis of the shaft 46 to be approximately arranged in alignment with the axis of the upper roll. 7

The differential roll drive can be applied to a'single pair of rolls of a paper making machine, but is preferably applied to several pairs of rolls. Figs. 2 and 3 show a preferred arrangement for driving the felts and paper web of a paper forming machine having one or more cylinder molds, baby press rolls, first and second main presses, and smoothing rolls,

other rolls-such as calender rolls and additional presses being provided if desired. The t several rolls of the machine are preferably .drivengfrom a common line shaft 55. Power is supplied to the first section of the paper forming machine includin the cylinder mold, baby press rolls and rst main press, by means of tapered pulleys 56-and 57 and a belt 58 which drives jack shaft 61 through shafts 59 and 60 at a speed which is determined by the adjustable belt and the tapered pulleys. Jack shaft'61 operates the several driven roll pairs of this machine section at relatively variable speeds so -that the speed of one pair of rolls can be coordinated with shrinkage or stretching as the web of material of an idler pulley or the like under the control of the operator. The third baby press roll 64, as shown, is driven through a differential driving connection corresponding to the construction shown in Fig. 1 and designated generally 65, power being supplied to the differential drive by means of the pulley 66 operated by belt 67' from pulley, 68, belt 67 being controllable to regulate slippage, as previously mentioned. A similar drive is provided through the differential drive device 69 for the fourth baby press roll 7 0. The fifth baby press roll 71 is similarly driven. The rst ,niain press 72 is operated through the differential drive '73, power being supplied from shaft 74 (corresponding to shaft .25 ofFig. 1), bevel gear 75, bevel pinion 76 and shaft 60.. The speed of operation of the first main press 72 is controllable, as all of the rolls may be speeded up 'or slowed down by the control of the ta ered pulleys and the belt which operates rom the line shaft so as to coordinate this section of the machine with adjacent sections, and the speeds of the other rolls may be governed to properly coordinate all of them withthe speed of the first main press. The couch roll 80 and cylinder mold 81 are driven by another similar diiferential drive designated generally 82 from pulley 83, belt 84, pulley 85 and jack shaft 61. A second and third cylinder mold and couch roll could also be provided, operated by similar differential driving devices from the jack shaft 61.

The second section of the machine, embodying' the second main press 88, and any additional associated rolls, is driven from the lincshaft 55 by means of the tapered pulleys 89 and 90 and the adjustable belt 91. These devices drive shaft 92 geared to shaft 93 which is connected directly by bevel gears 94 4 v f i a I q I and 95 to the shaft of the differential driving device similarto, the construction heretofore described. This difierential drive operates the upper and lower rolls of the second I 5 press and of course supplies power equally described to the differential driving device;

101 which operates the smoothing rolls 102. These smoothing rolls press and feed the paper web only between them. As the smoothing rolls are driven at exactly the same peripheral speedany slippage of the paper with relation to the rolls is minimized and divided equally on both sides of the paper so that the paper wi 1 not be roughened or rendered uneven in thickness. However, when drives of this character are supplied to the couch ro1ls, baby presses, mainpresses, etc., there will be practically no slippage between any of the rolls and the felts or between the paper web and any of the rolls, as each pair of cooperating'driven rolls supplies only a comparatively small amount) of power to the entire drive, the result being the practically complete elimination of any slippage anywhere with respect to the felts and the paper web. The life-of the feltsis therefore very substantially increased and the As the rolls become worn they can-'be resurfaced and their diameterschanged, without affecting the differential drives and without requiring any changes inthe gears of the 40 various differential drives. a

\Vhile the form of apparatus herein described constitutes a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to this precise form of apparatus, and that changes may be i made therein without departing from the scope of the invention which is defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a paper making machine of theclass described, in combination, two rotary rolls adapted to squeeze and feed a web ofmaterial between them, difierential driving means for applyingpower equally to both said rolls and positively drive them at the same peripheral speed, fixed bearings for the parts of the differential driving means maintaining the axes thereof in definite predetermined positions, movable bearings for at least one of said rolls, means for adjusting said movable bearings to effect the maintaining of a predetermined pressure between the said rolls in operation, and a flexibly jointed driving connection from said difierential driving means to the roll having movquality of the product materially improved.

\ movable bearings an able bearin and extending between saidmovable ro bearing and'one .ofthe fixed bearings ofvthedriving-means. t

2. In a paper mak'n machine of theclass described, in combination, two rotary rolls adapted to squeeze and feed websof paper and felt between them, a driving shaft, as driven gear positively driving one of said rolls, a driving gear meshing with said driven gear, bearings for said driving arid driven gfiars holding them in constant mesh'with t eir axes fixed-a definite predetermined distance apart, movable'bearings for said one roll and fixed bearings for the other roll, means for pivotally supportingsaid movable bearings and means foradjusting the pivotal support to effect the maintainin of a predetermined pressure between the said rolls in operation, a flexibly jointed driving connectiqn between saiddriven gear and said one 86 roll and extending between the bearing of said driven gear and a movable bearing of said one roll andproviding for motion' of the roll'axis while the axis of'the driven gear remains fixed, and a differential gear drive for, 90

positively rotating said driving gear and one of said rolls from said driving shaft and-ap I plying power equally to both said; rolls so Q they rotate atthe same peripheral speed.- 5

3. ha paper making machine of the class be described, in combination, two rotary rolls adapted to squeeze and feed a. web. of material betweenthem, difi erential driving means for applying powersequally toboth said rolls and positively drive them at the same peripheral's'peed, fixed bearings for the parts of the I differential drivin means maintaining the axes. thereof inde ite predeterminedpositions, movable bearings for" at least one of said rolls, a support for said movable beari'ngs that is pivotally mounted about an axis laterally spaced from the roll axis with m eans for adjusting said support to effect the maintaining of a predetermined pressure between th said rolls in operation, and a flexibly jointed driving connection fronf said differential driving means to the roll having I extending between said movable roll bearingand one of the fixed bearings of the driving means, 4; In a papermaking machine of the class described, in combination, two "rotary rolls adapted to squeeze and feed a web of material between them, differential driving means for applying power equally to both said rolls and 12 positively drive them at the same peripheral 7 speed, fixed bearings for the parts of the dif-, ferential driving means maintaining the axes thereof in definite predetermined positions, movable bearings for at least one of said rolls, means for adjusting said movable bearings to effect the maintainingof a predetermined pressure between the said rolls in operation, a stationary housing entirely enclosing said difierential driving means and supporting its said bearings, and a flexibly j oint- I ed driving connection from said difierential driving means to the roll having movable bearings and extending between said movable roll bearin and one of the fixed bearings of the driving means.

5. In a paper making machine of the class described, in combination, two rotary rolls adapted to squeeze and feed webs of paper and felt between them, a driving shaft, a driven gear positively drivin one of said rolls, a driving gear meshing w1th said driven gear, bearings for said driving and driven gears, a first bearing supporting section fixedly supporting the bearing for said driving gear, a second bearin supporting section fixedly supporting the earin for said driven gear, means for adjustably g one of said sections on the other but always holding the driving and driven gears inconstant mesh with their axes fixed a definite predetermined distance apart, movable bearin for said one roll and fixed bearings for, t e other roll, means for pivotally supporting said movable bearin and means for adjusting the pivotal support toefiect the maintaining of a figedetermined pressure between the said ro in operation, a flexibly jointed drivin connection between said driven ear and sai one roll and extendin betweent e bearing of said driven gear an a movable bearin of said one rolland providing for motion 0 the roll axis while the axis of the driven gear remains fixed, and a diflerential gear drive for positively rotating said driving ear and one of said rolls from said drivin s aft and applying power equally to hot said rolls so theyrotate at the same peri heral speed.

In testimony whereof hereto afiix my signature.

TOM HARVEY. 

